Lauren Novak: How many more children will die before we take action?

It’s far too easy for parents to fly under the radar of child protection authorities between states, but the outcome can be horribly tragic. It’s time for a national database, writes Lauren Novak.

It is disturbingly easy for parents to fly under the radar of child protection authorities — until something goes horribly wrong.

As last year drew to a close, one baby was found dead and another nearly died after their struggling parents were able to shift from place to place, avoiding the welfare checks that could have protected their children.

Authorities had been told these families were in trouble but they slipped through the cracks across borders.

Surely in this technological age — where your phone recognises your face and government debt collectors can take money right out of your bank account — we can devise a system to track transient families to prevent this from happening.

We should have been able to help the parents of a four-month-old boy from Port Pirie before he had to be flown to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, severely dehydrated and close to death. His parents have now been charged with neglect after it emerged they had been moving between SA, Western Australia and the Northern Territory to avoid child protection services.

A memorial was created on Surfers Paradise beach near where a nine-month-old baby was found dead in November last year. Picture: AAP/John Gass)

Interstate, a nine-month-old girl should have been saved before she was allegedly drowned by her father in late November. Police believe she was killed in New South Wales but carried by the waters to a beach in Queensland. Her mother, who has been charged with failing to provide for a child, and father who has been charged with murder, had been living homeless between the two states. Locals made reports to NSW authorities about the conditions the family were living in.

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It is by no means new — or surprising — that itinerant parents would run from trouble.

In late 2011 four-month-old baby Ebony died in the Adelaide home of her young mother and father. They had moved to SA from NSW when the 17-year-old mother was pregnant and under the guardianship of the state there. There had been allegations put to NSW authorities that the father had assaulted two other children and abused cannabis — but social workers in SA had no idea.

A later coronial inquest slammed the failure to request information about the father’s background from NSW and recommended a national child protection database be established to enable immediate access to interstate records.

A candle light vigil was held for the baby found dead on Surfers Paradise Beach but law reform is needed to prevent further tragedies. Picture: Glenn Hampson

That was seven years ago, but we’re still losing children through the gaps in the system.

More warnings came in SA’s 2016 Nyland Royal Commission report — not just about barriers between jurisdictions, but between departments meant to be working with each other in the state.

It found that many agencies fail to share information because of “a persistent culture that privileges privacy and confidentiality over the need to share information relevant to the health, safety and wellbeing of children.”

SA state MPs passed law changes in 2017 that were meant to address these concerns, but it is unclear how much has changed.

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There are new systems in place, such as a taskforce which brings together police, health, education and child protection workers — but only for the most high-risk cases.

In domestic violence scenarios, new laws mean court orders to protect victims can be enforced across state borders, regardless of where they were first imposed.

Baby Ebony died in 2011 at the hands of her father after failures to request information about his background from NSW authorities. Picture: supplied

I’m no tech expert, but it can’t be that hard to devise a system to ensure at-risk families are covered when they move between jurisdictions.

One of the major barriers has, sadly, been cost.

The former SA State Government committed about half a billion dollars to implement an IT system to manage hospital patient records (EPAS), which most would now say has been a disaster.

Unfortunately, this probably makes Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson a bit reluctant to launch her own IT project. For now, she’s keeping an eye on a system being trialled in Victoria and her department has undertaken an IT audit.

It is hard to get this technology right — balancing the cost and privacy risks with safety benefits — but there has to be a way to stop children slipping through the cracks.

When (or if) we get the tech right, its efficacy will depend on how it is used.

Parents who are struggling — with mental illness, substance addiction, poverty and shame — will always go to great lengths to avoid authorities.

And as baby Ebony’s case showed, staff must be trained to think to use the technology when red flags are raised.

But their job of preventing the worst would be so much easier if they had the right tools.

Lauren Novak is Social Policy Editor for The Adelaide Advertiser.

@lauren__dailey